Ca suffit!

Now it's war.

Last night's chilli treatment (backblipped) did not work. I think I wouldn't mind so much if they waited until the tomatoes were ripe, then took a few. I'd even let them have half. But eating two inches of stem just destroys the plant. So, I'm getting serious. Fencing isn't an option in our case, so I have a sleeve to tie round each plant every night and I will continue doing so until other measures take effect.

On the plus side, no more of the beetroot have been nibbled, and in the top garden we still have about half the beans going strong and flowers on the melons and courgettes. Still not sure what's going on with the aubergines (leaves curling up a bit and just not thriving). Our neighbour wandered by tonight and came over for a chat. He lives further down the road, past our landlord's house and we've not met him before. Friendly chap, but with quite a difficult accent for me to understand. I'm learning now though just to nod and smile a lot and not worry so much if I don't get every word. He didn't have much gardening advice for me, but was quite firm on anti-rodent action, recommending poison and saying I can get it from the Mairie. We'll see.

Mrs Senior B has a bad back so is struggling a bit with getting out and about. Arguably taking the painkillers the doctor prescribed might help, but what would I know. This meant a very short morning trip for everyone (I stayed at home nursing a vicious cold that suddenly appeared last night) and in the afternoon Mr B and I slipped out to sort out some stuff for the site. I had thought our plumber couldn't start work until the 28th and was being a bit grumpy with him about this - then finally worked out that he meant 'week 28' in the year - which is the week after next. So, suddenly we need to get a move on and get the rooms ready for him. Today we were off to hire a sander and buy a generator (way more complicated than you might imagine) to get the ball rolling. Now we just need to find a way of moving a billiard table out of the 'kitchen' - which is going to be tricky as it's so heavy that we can barely even get the lid off.